WOW! Check this out at The Center For American Progress. Backs up DSM!

[mzmolly]

Today I contacted a couple misinformed people on the DSM issue. Of course you know some of their major talking points: "the intelligence was bad" and now ... "the memo/minutes were merely the opinion of one person" and ... "There is nothing concrete to back up the context of the Dowing Street memo."

Reaaaaaaaallllllllllyyyyyyyyy?

Welp, with the help of google, I stumbled on this amazing compilation which indeed backs up the contents found in the memo/minutes:

IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THIS INFORMATION WAS COMPILED/RELEASED IN JANUARY OF 2004 AND WAS SENT OUT TO THE "PRESS" AT THAT TIME.

Of course this was ignored by our media, but I'm sending them a polite reminder. ;)

"2003: WH Pressures Intel Agencies to Conform; Ignores More Warnings.

Instead of listening to the repeated warnings from the intelligence community, intelligence officials say the White House instead pressured them to conform their reports to fit a pre-determined policy. Meanwhile, more evidence from international institutions poured in that the White House’s claims were not well-grounded.

LATE 2002-EARLY 2003 – CHENEY PRESSURES CIA TO CHANGE INTELLIGENCE: "Vice President Dick Cheney's repeated trips to CIA headquarters in the run-up to the war for unusual, face-to-face sessions with intelligence analysts poring over Iraqi data. The pressure on the intelligence community to document the administration's claims that the Iraqi regime had ties to al-Qaida and was pursuing a nuclear weapons capacity was ‘unremitting,’ said former CIA counterterrorism chief Vince Cannistraro, echoing several other intelligence veterans interviewed." Additionally, CIA officials "charged that the hard-liners in the Defense Department and vice president's office had 'pressured' agency analysts to paint a dire picture of Saddam's capabilities and intentions." ~ Sources: Dallas Morning News, 7/28/03; Newsweek, 7/28/03

JANUARY, 2003 – STATE DEPT. INTEL BUREAU REITERATE WARNING TO POWELL: "The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), the State Department's in-house analysis unit, and nuclear experts at the Department of Energy are understood to have explicitly warned Secretary of State Colin Powell during the preparation of his speech that the evidence was questionable. The Bureau reiterated to Mr. Powell during the preparation of his February speech that its analysts were not persuaded that the aluminum tubes the Administration was citing could be used in centrifuges to enrich uranium." ~ Source: Financial Times, 7/30/03

FEBRUARY 14, 2003 – UN WARNS WHITE HOUSE THAT NO WMD HAVE BEEN FOUND: "In their third progress report since U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 was passed in November, inspectors told the council they had not found any weapons of mass destruction." Weapons inspector Hans Blix told the U.N. Security Council they had been unable to find any WMD in Iraq and that more time was needed for inspections. ~ Source: CNN, 2/14/03

FEBRUARY 15, 2003 – IAEA WARNS WHITE HOUSE NO NUCLEAR EVIDENCE: The head of the IAEA told the U.N. in February that "We have to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear-related activities in Iraq." The IAEA examined "2,000 pages of documents seized Jan. 16 from an Iraqi scientist's home -- evidence, the Americans said, that the Iraqi regime was hiding government documents in private homes. The documents, including some marked classified, appear to be the scientist's personal files." However, "the documents, which contained information about the use of laser technology to enrich uranium, refer to activities and sites known to the IAEA and do not change the agency's conclusions about Iraq's laser enrichment program." ~ Source: Wash. Post, 2/15/03

More at link:

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24889

This site is one for the bookmarks folks! It's a must see.

Please send this link to the media if you can.

[Somawas]

1. Recommended!

Good piece of work.

[mzmolly]

8. Thanks, definately a website worth bookmarking.

:hi:

[I Have A Dream]

2. Recommended n/t

[mzmolly]

24. Thank you.

:hi:

[mzmolly]

3. Well, I didn't do a thing but stumble upon this.

But thanks for the recommendations!

[rodeodance]

7. America Progress.org does good wook on lots of issues--I generally

there for the summanies--which clickable 'real' articles that they reference.

[mzmolly]

14. *dup deleted*

eom

[mzmolly]

15. They have a great compilation of Bush lies leading up to war also.

:hi:

[Carolab]

4. I sent it to Norm Coleman, who sent me this.

Thank you for taking the time to contact me concerning a British memo about pre-Iraq war intelligence.

As you may know, on May 1, 2005, the London Sunday Times published a memo written by British foreign policy aide Matthew Rycroft based on notes he had taken during a July 2002 meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair and his advisors. The memo reflected Mr. Rycroft's opinion that the U.S. was intent on removing Saddam Hussein from power and was fixing intelligence around that policy.

Clearly there have been shortcomings in intelligence about Iraq 's prewar capabilities. However, the U.S. was not alone in our assessment about Saddam's weapons programs. Foreign intelligence agencies, including the British and Australian services, as well as the UN, believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction ( WMDs ). UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which passed unanimously in 2002, stated that Iraq posed a threat to international peace and security because of its WMD proliferation.

After Saddam was removed from power, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was assigned the task of investigating Saddam's WMD program. The ISG report by Charles Duelfer details Saddam Hussein's attempts to end U.N. sanctions against him while preserving his capacity to reconstitute his WMD programs once the sanctions were lifted.

Saddam Hussein used WMDs against his own people and clearly did not abandon his WMD ambitions. He personally directed efforts to hide and preserve documentation related to Iraq 's nuclear program and prevented Iraqi scientists from leaving Iraq , enabling him to restart his WMD programs. Although stockpiles of WMDs were not found in Iraq, the facts contained in the Duelfer report show that Saddam Hussein maintained the capacity to rebuild his WMD programs in a short amount of time, and that he was actively undercutting the sanctions against him. Given the multiple sources of pre-war intelligence, as well as the findings of the Duelfer Report, there is little evidence to support the Rycroft memo.

In order to address failures with pre-war intelligence, however, I worked closely with my colleagues in the 108 th Congress to construct and pass a comprehensive intelligence reform bill, the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 (S. 2845) which became public law on December 17, 2004. I also supported Ambassador John Negroponte to be the first Director of National Intelligence for the United States and oversee this major intelligence reorganization.

Thank you once again for contacting me. I value your advice. If I may be of further assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me again.



Sincerely,
Norm Coleman
United States Senate

[mzmolly]

6. Heh, I sent it too.

LOL. I guess he'll see it.

[Carolab]

10. Good on ya, MzMolly. He needs his head extracted from *'s butt.

eom

[mzmolly]

12. LOL.

Indeed he does! I can't believe he protested the Vietnam War.



Funny how the Swift Vets failed to mention his lack of patriotism and obvious connection to Jane Fonda? ;)

[Carolab]

38. Guess what? I got a receipt of my reply e-mail to Coleman.

It said it was "deleted" without being read.

Nice, huh?

[katinmn]

17. Coleman = Bush's "Mini-Me"

I write to him every week, twice on weekends, even though I know he'll just be Bush's little yapper.

He's going down with Bush. Don't ever forget.

[mzmolly]

20. Oh boy I hope so!

;)

[marmar]

5. Kicked!

CFAP rocks!

[oasis]

9. Maybe someone will mention this on "Hardball" today. It's suppose to

cover the DSM. "Fact or fiction" is how MSNBC is promoting today's show about DSM .

[mzmolly]

11. I emailed it, hope they get it in time?

:hi:

[rodeodance]

13. The WH/repugs are relying on Americans/the media to have short

memories. or amnesia.

[mzmolly]

25. Well, thankfully we have the truth somewhere.

So glad Gore invented the Internet. ;)

[Pirate Smile]

16. I hope Tweety has it before his show tonight.

I can't send it myself because my Outlook doesn't work.

[katinmn]

18. Excellent find. Much good reading!

:thumbsup:

[mzmolly]

19. Thanks, I think it will come in handy in the coming months.

:hi:

[sunnystarr]

21. I emailed it to Jim Cooper

in response to this email from him:

Dear Ms. XXX:

Thanks for getting in touch with me to share your views on attempts to impeach President Bush over his justification for invading Iraq. As you know, there are several groups investigating the production and use of intelligence information by the Administration to make its case for the war.

I believe it to be critically important that Congress and the American people find out the truth about what was known about Iraq's weapons and intentions. In Iraq, there was significant evidence-much of it collected prior to the Bush Administration taking office-that indicated that Iraq continued to pursue and store chemical and biological weapons. However, despite the presence of thousands of American troops in Iraq for months, no conclusive evidence of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons has been found. This is especially disturbing since many Bush Administration officials, including the President, used intelligence documents to claim that
Iraq was an imminent threat to the United States that justified a preemptive war with few allies in support.

A full and complete accounting of the intelligence process used to justify the war will help ensure that future decisions are made on the basis of sound and unbiased information. However, until we have complete answers to some of the key issues involved, I think it is premature to consider impeachment proceedings.

I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue, and I will keep your views in mind when making decisions on this topic in the future. If you have additional concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me again in the future.

Sincerely,

Jim Cooper
Member of Congress

[katinmn]

22. Great follow up!

Nice letter from Cooper, too. Wow!

[lonestarnot]

23. Nice work mzmolly.

[mzmolly]

27. Thanks, I didn't do a thing really.

:)

[lonestarnot]

31. Oh but you are truly helping educate the masses that know how to read.

[corbett]

26. Kickin' For The Truth! n/t

[I Have A Dream]

28. Kick.

:kick:

[mzmolly]

30. Thanks.

:hi:

[I Have A Dream]

29. Self deleted duplicate. n/t

[Karenina]

32. Kick entry!

;-):kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

33. Good find! And also check out this less-known May 1 article on

how 5 top Bush admin lawyers bullied Lord Goldsmith (the UK attorney general) into changing his stance about the legallity of the Iraq invasion in a series of "gruelling" meetings in Feb 2003 - the same month that Colin Powell gave his brazenly fraudulent UN speech. This is an important one for multiple reasons but it is rarely cited:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3847225
Thread title: "This May 1 EXPOSÉ ABOUT THE U.K. ATT'Y GENERAL complements the DSM:"

The lawyers included Gonzales and Ashcroft as well as representatives of other top Bush insiders - the complicity is widespread and very clear. Lord Goldsmith was sent to these meetings to "put some steel in his spine" - both Blair/Straw in the UK and all these bullies in the US pushed him and undoubtedly lied to him in order for him to give his legal blessing to the UK participation in the invasion.

[mzmolly]

35. Thanks, another one for the bookmarks.

:toast:

[Nothing Without Hope]

36. Yes, and I don't think it's gotten enough attention. It tells its own

story that shoots down much of the current GOP spin and shows the complicity of the various Bush admin insiders.

[kittenpants]

34. thanks for posting this

& reminding me of why the DSM had that ring of truth to it! :)

[WePurrsevere]

37. Awesome... thank you

:kick: